PUERTO RICO: Church & Commonwealth

Until a fortnight ago, when the island's
three Roman Catholic bishops issued a pastoral letter forbidding
Catholics to vote for Governor Luis Muñoz Marin and his Popular
Democratic Party, Puerto Rico's gubernatorial campaign was a race
without an issue. Muñoz' opponent, Luis Ferré, candidate of the
Statehood Republican Party and a partner in the island's largest
private enterprise (Ferré Industries), had demanded a plebiscite on
statehood, but foxy old Muñoz sidetracked that issue. His party
slipped a rule through the legislature that no statehood plebiscite
could be held in an election...